Patent GB-451813-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in and relating to motor vehicles
IPC: B62D7/00
Filed: 1935-08-31
Abstract: 451,813. Motor-vehicle driving and steering gear. BARLEN, D., 161, Rue de la Convention, FRENKEL, 1., 6, Avenue Adrien Hebrard, and MARINITCH, V., JAKOVENKO-, 330, Rue de Vaugirard, all in Paris. Aug. 31, 1935, No. 24398. Convention date, April 25. [Classes 79 (ii) and 79 (v)] A motor vehicle having at least one front wheel and one rear wheel driven and all four wheels steerable so that it can be steered or rotated about centres within and outside the wheel-base and can also move laterally, has each driving wheel driven through two approximately-spherical pinions, one of which swivels with the wheel and the two pinions being mounted in hinged supports so as to remain in mesh for any angular positions of the pinion shafts. In the construction shown in Fig. 8, the front wheel 1 and the rear wheel 3 are driven through pinions 28, 27, Fig. 15, the shafts 26, 25 of which pass through holes 24 in frames 21, 20, Fig. 14, connected together by crossed links or frames 22, 23. The frames 20 are fixed to wheel swivels 29, Fig. 25, pivoted for steering in the usual manner. The pinions 28 are driven from a main shaft 33 through gearing 32 and cardan shafts 31. In a modification, Figs. 20 and 28, the frames 20, 21 are formed with flanges 22<11>, 23<11> connected together by pins 35 on 23<11> engaging slots 34 on 22<11>, the links 22, 23 being dispensed with. The steering swivels 29 are formed with steering arms 38 connected by links 36 to radius arms 39 pivoted at 41 to the chassis, the links being operated by rods 19, 19<1> respectively pivoted at 121, 11<1> to transverselysliding racks 11, 12. The racks are controlled by the steering hand wheel 6 through skew gearing 8, a longitudinal shaft 9, and intermeshed pinions 10, 14. The shaft 9 is slidable axially by means of a lever 16, through the skew gear 8 which is slidably-keyed on the shaft, and the pinions 14 slide with the pinions 10, their shafts 15 being connected at 91 with the shaft 9 so as to slide therewith. The following steering operations are possible: (1) In the position shown in Figs. 8 and 10 the pinion 10 at each end of shaft 9 meshes with both racks 11, 12, so that when the steering hand wheel is rotated all the racks are moved in the same direction and the steering road wheels are swivelled as shown in Fig. 3, the limiting position being that in which the wheels on the inside of the curve are swivelled through 90‹. The driving wheels 1, 3 now rotate in opposite directions, and the vehicle will rotate about the middle of one side. The racks 11, 12 overlap, as shown in Fig. 10 and are so arranged that when the wheels on the inside of the curve have been swivelled through 90‹ their racks will have moved out of gear with the pinions 10. (2) Further rotation of the steering hand wheel now operates only the other racks so that the road wheels corresponding to these racks are also swivelled until they also reach the 90‹ position as shown in Fig. 2, and the vehicle can be moved laterally, the drive to one of the driven wheels being reversed by reversing gear controlled either automatically in accordance with the position of the wheel or by a hand lever. (3) When the steering wheels have been returned to the straight-ahead position they can be swivelled as shown in Fig. 1 so that the vehicle will rotate about its own centre. To do this the shaft 9 is moved rearwardly by the lever 16 so that the pinions 10 mesh only with the racks 12 and the pinions 14 mesh with the racks 11. On rotation of the steering hand wheel 6 the racks 11 and 12 are moved in opposite directions and the road wheels are moved correspondingly. The drive to one of the road wheels is reversed as for the arrangement shown in Fig. 2. (4) The front wheels alone may be steered, the shaft 9 being moved forwardly by the lever 16 so that its front part separates from the rear part at a coupling 18, the front part and the front wheels being still controlled by the steering gear 8 while the rear part and rear wheels are disconnected and remain in the straight-ahead position.